Demand for Balinese beef boosts cattle breeders

Demand for Balinese beef boosts cattle breeders

By I Ketut Sutika

DENPASAR, Bali (Antara): The strained relations between
Australia and Indonesia have become a blessing in disguise for
local cattle breeders.

The demand for beef from Bali is on the rise because the
import of Australian beef has become unreliable due to the
worsening relations between the two countries.

Australia has been a major supplier of beef to Indonesia,
providing 60,000 tons, or 15 percent, of the 400,000 tons of beef
that Indonesia consumes annually.

In fact, Indonesia's ability to import beef or livestock from
Australia has dropped since the economic crisis began in 1997
when the rupiah plunged against the dollar.

"Many Indonesian companies who have traditionally relied on
Australia for beef have turned to Balinese beef which is famous
for its good taste," says I Gusti Made Alit Ekaputra, chief of
the Balinese Animal Husbandry Office.

MV ST, a Yogyakarta-based trade consultancy firm which has
been a longtime importer of beef from Australia, for example, has
explored the possibility of doing large scale business in
Balinese beef.

The company has also explored the possibility of buying beef
from South Sulawesi, West Nusa Tenggara and East Nusa Tenggara.

"It is a positive development for cattle breeders, especially
in Bali and we have to seize this opportunity," Ekaputra says.

Bali has 202,838 hectares of grassy dry fields which are good
for intensive cattle breeding. A recent study by the Indonesian
Institute of Sciences (LIPI) concluded that the land is suitable
for breeding Balinese cows.

Balinese cows are popular for not only their meat but also
their adaptability to new surroundings and they have been
successfully bred throughout Indonesia, notably Sumatra,
Sulawesi, Kalimantan and Nusa Tenggara.

"We are a bit late in anticipating this (the soaring demand
for Balinese beef)," Ekaputra says. "It takes about four years to
raise a cow until it weighs the ideal 400 kilogram weight and we
need a lot of them now."

The provincial government has made various efforts to make
Bali a reliable source of beef for domestic consumption. Although
each Balinese farming family has only a couple of cows, they are
now learning faster breeding systems and cattle fattening
techniques.

With the use of modern technology, it now takes only between
one to two years to have a cow weighing 400 kilograms. A 250
kilogram calf needs only one year to reach a weight of 400
kilograms. With the use of this technology, the cow's weight can
increase by one kilogram every day.

"More and more farmers are trying the fattening technique and
every regency in Bali is making a pilot project," Ekaputra says.

Conservation

As Indonesia's main tourist destination, Bali is a big
consumer of beef itself. Bali is struggling to conserve the cow.
The cows for export are limited to a maximum of 10 percent of the
total cattle population.

In 1999, Bali set 90,000 heads of cattle for commercial
purposes. Of the total, 40,000 were sold to outer islands, 5,000
for canned beef and 45,000 for local consumption, which includes
tourists.

The highest demand for Balinese beef usually occurs in
November and December, especially when Christmas and New Year
celebrations are approaching.

The Balinese cattle industry has been overseen by Indapta, an
association of Indonesian cattle traders, which also makes sure
that no illegal business occurs.

Recently, some Indapta officials have been suspected of
misusing their authority by illegally issuing trading permits to
businesspeople from Java.

Balinese cattle now numbers 530,000, according to official
statistics, and the population is growing by 2.7 percent a year.
The population is the fifth biggest after that of East Java,
Central Java, West Nusa Tenggara and South Sulawesi.

The new trend has become a source of encouragement for
Balinese farmers. Now, a live cow is sold at a rate of Rp 8,650
per kilogram.